In memory of Peter Schlatter

Today, 2nd of September 2010, I have received the update in my email inbox from the Les Roches Alumni website. As always I wend through the email and at bottom of it I saw the announcement that Mr. Peter Schlatter has passed away last June the 6th at the age of 62.

In 1992 when I first arrived in Bluche after serving my military service in Cyprus and I had the first contact with the school and its Principal, I felt that my military service did not end. I was neither surprised nor disappoint to be honest, I thought that I could make it through since discipline was nothing too hard for me to follow.

The presence of Peter Schlatter every morning, smoking his pipe, at the school lobby to see all students climbing up the stairs for the classes made me feel that all the money my family will spend will worth it. The feeling of control and safety was there.

Three years afterwards I found myself working with Mr. Schlatter as stagier and later as personnel of the school. I am very graefull to Mr. and Mrs. Schlatter for the enormous trust they deposited on me during my work in Les Roches and all the support I have had from them.

It was then when I discovered the other Mr. Schlatter, caring, very methodical, very organised, friendly and with a great sense of humour. Peter Schlatter has always accepted me in his office with seriousness and professionalism, with a good word and always with care.

I consider Mr. Schlatter as one of my mentors and I would like to express my most sincere condolences to his close family and all the Les Rosches – Bluche people all over the world. As we say in Greek “Let the soil that will cover him be light”.

Thank you Peter Schlatter for being there for us.

Petros Mavros (winter 94)

Xynisteri – The Wine surprise of Cyprus

Today I had a short 20 minute drive to Lemona to visit my good friend Angelos Tsaggarides in his winery. The heat was unbearable in Pafos by the sea so I thought I drive to the hills and by the way see how the harvesting goes.

When I arrived at the winery Angelos as usual opened a bottle of wine to “celebrate” the occasion. This time he opened a bottle of white wine, last years white he said, but still very alive. It was the first time I was going to try his white wine. A crystal clear white wine that has almost no colour, at the beginning I though , oh well , another tasteless white, (being myself a lover of red), but I must admit I was very surprised of its fruity smell and even more surprised of its smoothness. Light, refreshing and full of “appleness” Tsagarides Xynistery was a very pleasant surprise.

Xynistery is the most local variety of Cyprus “cepage”, cultivated in Cyprus since ever Xynisteri is a component of Commandaria. Alone always had a bad reputiuon as a very acid variety, not stable and a headaque generator. Its juice was used also to produce sweets such as Palouze and Sioutziouko, Xynistery earned its but reputation for its acididy, Xino in Greek means acid.

But today the young winemakers like Angleos understood the value of this local variety and took measures to create a wonderful white wine that we can be proud of.

This is defiantly the most live example of turning around a bad reputation. Xynistery white wines are now taken seriously in mouths of wine experts such as Dr. George Soleas who lives and works in Toronto Canada and during the wine tasting just before the opening of the wine festival in Lemesos in Cyprus he has literally said that Xynisteri is an example to follow for other local varieties worldwide.

50 Years of Cyprus Tourism - 50 Years of Republic of Cyprus

The 16th of August 1960, Archbishop Makarios III representing the Greek Cypriots and Dr. Fazil Küçük representing the Turkish Cypriots have signed the independence of Cyprus from the British Empire.
Since then the history of Cyprus has not been very easy.  Nevertheless, tourism has grown spectacularly basically due to private initiative of the then young tourism entrepreneurs.

People like Louis Loizou, founder of Louis Group, Yiannis Skyrianides, founder of the Cyprus Hotel Association, Renos Solomides, hotelier and ex Minister of Commerce and Industry, Katsellis Family, owners of the emblematic Dome Hotel in Kyrenia, the poet Costas Montis, the first president of the Tourism Counsil, which has later been transformed to the Cyprus Tourism Organisation, and many, many  others who believed that tourism could be the major source of income for the Cypriot economy.

50 years after our Independence, we look into the future with perplexity,  questioning and  wondering if the present model of tourism development in Cyprus is a model that assures the future of tourism and the future of a healthy economy.

The global and deep financial crisis has made us understand that we cannot continue with practises of the last half century.  The tourism pioneers of the 60’s have dared to change the agricultural economy of Cyprus into a service economy.  Today is our duty to move towards Experiential Economy and accompany our visitors to their travel experience before even they land and after they arrive back home.
The use of new technologies, investment in training, collaborative projects, local management of tourism and return to our traditions, preservation and regeneration of our natural environment, sustainable resource management and last but not least extreme customer awareness and care should be the ingredients of the new strategic and action plan of the Cyprus Tourism in general.

The booklet below is a document created by the Cyprus Hotel Association and is document that shows the history of Tourism in Cyprus even before the independence.

Open publication - Free publishing - More cyprus tourism

Cyprus Airways president resigns - Kikis Lazarides leaves Cyprus Airways

The President of the board of directors of Cyprus Airways, Kikis Lazarides,  presented his resignation to the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Mr. Demetris Christofias. Mr Lazarides was assigned to this position by the recently deceased last president Tasos Papadopoulos back in 2004.

Everything seems to point that Lazarides has found hard core reactions in both inside and outside the company,  while he wanted to put order in the turbulent economics and politics of the state owned airline.
The scandal of Eurocypria, the ex sister airline of Cyprus airways, that broke a few weeks ago, when suddenly the Cypriot citizen has realized that politicians of many political colours,  have cheated the parliament  to release 35 million Euros to save Eurocyopria last winter  from guaranteed bankruptcy , is only the tip of the iceberg. The General Accountant of the Republic of Cyprus in his report about Cyprus air transport points very clearly the it is unviable and unsustainable  to have 2 state owned airlines in Cyprus and therefore an immediate merge of the two airlines was the first step to survival.

Lazarides, former Banker , president of Laiki Polular Bank, now Marfin Laiki Bank, has found himself in the centre of the hurricane and today he decided to resign. He leaves behind him an uncertain future for the Airline that lacks of flexibility and has very little character of a modern company.  Cyprus Airlines is used to monopolistic routes and has very little view of how the world of air transport has changed the last years. Closed in the walls themselves have built, the airline suffers from the CCSS (Cypriot Civil Servant Syndrome). A virus that lately has been without any vaccination in Cyprus.

The state is the sole owner of both airlines in Cyprus, this creates the perfect scenery for corruption and private political agendas to flourish.  This year is a very tough year for the fragile Cypriot Tourism industry, crisis of this type should be avoided or given a quick and very effective solution. Maybe is time for the Cypriot politicians and micro-politicians to stay out of the management of vital sectors such as air transport.
Cyprus is a profitable destination especially if someone looks the geographic location of the island, with two new airports (run privately)  that are a jewel of out tourism crown, a new generation airline should be born from this.

Lazarides left by himself, what are the others going to do? Would they give up too? My guess is that there is more than one who likes Lazarides chair, people who like political positions but they know they will never be elected not even for the Backgammon club of their village.

My opinion that there is not enough meat for all the vultures on this corpse, but vultures at the end fight amongst themselves for the last piece of skin.

Cyprus Space Tourism: Cyprus as a tourist attraction also for Space Tourists of the present and the future

Nasa astronaut Soichi Noguchi and his colleagues are giving us for the last months wonderful images of the Earth. Today he was generous with Cyprus. He took a picture of our island and published it on his twitter. http://twitter.com/Astro_Soichi

This post is to thank @Astro_Soichi for his courtesy and invite him to join us in Cyprus this Summer 2010  when he lands back to Earth.

Cyprus Tourism pampering local business, 132 Cyprus Hotels offer special rates for locals

For the past few years the local market gained more weight for the Cypriot hotel occupancies. Cypriots travel abroad a lot but also stay in Cyprus a lot. According to Cyprus tourism Organisation the local market produces approximately 1,500,000 (one and a half million) bed nights to the Cypriot hotels and accommodation establishments. This converts Cypriots to the 2nd biggest tourism market for Cyprus after the UK market.

It was once when Cypriots were an insignificant market share, those times are gone, today, the 1.5 million overnights, means a lot to the local hotel industry and especially this year the Cyprus Hotel Association gave a bigger emphasis to the packages offered from its members to the local consumer.

This initiative is supported by the Cyprus Tourism Organisation, the Bank of Cyprus (American Express Credit Cards).

The offer includes 132 hotels in all the tourist areas of Cyprus and you can see the entire offer here below.

Open publication - Free publishing - More cyprus hotels